After a draw at Vicarage Road, against Watford, The Tigers hosted mid-table Sunderland under the lights of the MKM stadium for the first time in over a month. The attendance hit over 18,000, and the away end was packed. We played amazingly well last week, and I hoped that we could bring the same energy and determination into this game.
Captain Lewie Coyle and forward Oscar Estupinan returned to the team in place of Alfie Jones and injured Dimitrios Pelkas meaning that the team now had two changes since our visit to North London, and our squad now consisted of: Matt Ingram (in goal); Lewie Coyle; Sean McLoughlin; Cyrus Christie; Jacob Greaves (as the back four); Ryan Woods; Jean Seri; Regan Slater (in the middle); Tyler Smith; Ryan Longman and Oscar Estupinan (up front). Again, Ozan Tufan was benched and I think, from now on, Dogukan Sinik should be included in the starting eleven as he makes a huge difference when he is brought on as a substitute. It was great to have our main striker up front – after receiving a red card at Millwall – as well.
In the first period, it is safe to say that Sunderland had more control over the game. But we had our spells every now and then. The way we played, though, was quite good and we were very good in attack. The only problem was that Estupinan is not being given the ball enough and he never has anybody to help him out when he has the ball. Tyler Smith and Regan Slater should be running either side of him so he has options whenever the opposition closes him down. If they helped out like this, then I reckon we would score more goals.
I must say Sunderland were very good in defence as they were very tight; we found it very hard to get past them. I wish we could be that strong in defence because if we were then I see us winning more and losing less. Our back four was not that strong to be honest, and as I have said before we need to sign some new defenders. We cannot be having League One players if we want to be pushing for promotion. Jacob Greaves and Cyrus Christie are top quality. But, Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones and Callum Elder need to go. I hope, with a new manager, that he sees this issue and resolves it when the transfer opens up again. Also, another annoying thing that we are doing, again, is going backwards and playing back to the goalkeeper. We repeatedly did this in this game, and it is like they forget which goal we need to score in. One day, the keeper is going to get pressured and end up losing the ball. Nothing separated the two teams in the first 45 minutes, and at times I found it quite tedious: the atmosphere was like we were in a library.
I am starting to realise the major problems with us at the moment: Estupinan needs players on either side of him; we need to stop hesitating whenever we receive the ball; we need to stop going backwards; we need to start finishing better; we need confidence and we need to just clear the ball when they find themselves passing it from keeper to defender. If all of these issues were tackled and we have all of our talented players available again, then I see us being a top quality contender for promotion. We can play well and I could see that in this game, the Watford game and the last game before the World Cup break, against Reading. I believe in Liam Rosenior and he has the ability to turn us into a strong team.
In the second half, we took control of the game and we looked very comfortable on the ball. Our passing was on point, and we looked threatening on both wings. Coyle was making many crosses into the box and Greaves was superb at feeding the ball to him. Coyle has definitely made a huge improvement from previous games; he just has to be consistent now then he will have a better chance at staying. In the 49th minute, we were given the perfect opportunity to take the lead: Slater was pulled down in the box and the referee instantly pointed to the spot. Tufan was not on so the job was given to Estupinan. My stand were all standing in silence, and I could feel the tension running around the stadium. If he put this in then everybody would go wild, and it would be a perfect start to the half; however, he took one of the worst penalties, and put the ball wide. In future, whoever takes the penalty should always smash the ball down the middle. Statistically, you will have a better chance at scoring it than if you go for the corners. I think that this took the sting out of the game for a while; however, ten minutes later some hope came for us as Sunderland’s midfielder, Elliot John Embleton, made a dangerous challenge on Ryan Woods resulting in him receiving a red card. Great, we now had the advantage and we needed to take it. But, obviously we did not because in the 74th minute the ball was played over the top, and they had a free man open. He had an easy run and he slotted the ball past Ingram giving the visitors the lead. How ironic; they get a red card and we miss a penalty then we concede. It was so frustrating. The Sunderland fans went crazy and It was quite deafening to be honest. A cheap goal given away and another defensive error. We ended up bringing on Sinik and Tufan, who made a huge impact on the game because in the 82nd minute we equalised. Ryan Woods played the ball to Tufan, who tapped it into the corner of the goal. The Sunderland fans were instantly silenced and from then on we took control of the match. Chance after chance was created. But, unfortunately we were unable to score another and the game ended 1-1.
Well, it is another draw and I think that the opposing side would have taken the point more than we would. We dominated them in every way and we played like we did at the start of the season. I hope we can play like this when we host Blackpool on boxing day, and get those three vital points.